If you are trying to measure Josh Hamilton’s impact on the Rangers, it can’t be done with the complicated WAR (Wins Above Replacement) formula or any new-age statistic, for that matter. It comes down to this: The Rangers are a vastly different team without him. And not for the better. // By EVAN GRANT / Staff writer

Rangers GM Jon Daniels joined Galloway and Co. on KESN-FM 103.3 last week to discuss the Rangers' off-season plans and their pursuit of Josh Hamilton. Here are some highlights:

On if he believes Josh Hamilton wants to be in Texas:

I’m taking them at face value when they say yes. I think Josh and (his wife)
Katie and their four girls, they live here, they’ve got a house in the
Metroplex, they’ve got a second place here in Texas locally, and I think they have roots
here. I think they enjoy it here. At some point, they’ve got to consider all
their options obviously, but they’ve been pretty consistent all along in saying
they want to be here, and I’m taking them at face value.

On if the Rangers have had to bring themselves around on the
idea of bringing Hamilton
back:

I don’t know that I’ve ever said anything other than, “We do
want him back.” I don’t know that we’ve had to go back on that and adjust how
we feel about it because I think we’ve been pretty consistent. … [Our
disappointment] wasn’t just on Josh. There were a lot of guys that didn’t have
great finishes to the year. We lost as many games as we did the last two or
three weeks and we were just kind of flat as a club. Now, there were some at
bats that Josh had and some things that happened that didn’t look great, and I think
the fans reacted to some of those. But I have a hard time solely evaluating the
guy on that. I think you’ve got to look at the whole picture. That’s part of
it, but you’ve got to look at the whole picture.

On if Hamilton
was hurt by home fans booing him:

I’ve texted with him a couple of times, but the last time I spoke
with him was that night after the game. I hung out a little while afterward and
I was walking through and saw him on the way out. I think he was affected by
it – just getting booed at home is kind of unusual, especially given, when you
step back and look, he had 40 [homers] and 120 [RBI] or whatever he had this
year, to think he got booed at home at two different points in the season,
actually. It’s kind of unusual to think about, and I think some of that is
because of the high expectations he set with his performances. He did have a year
with a lot of highs and lows. The highs were ridiculously high, and some of the
lows were probably equally so on the flip side. And the fans reacted to that
and he’s human.

On if he has a feeling for what type of interest Hamilton is getting in free agency:

The one thing I will say is some guys use the media a lot
and play games in the media and put things out there on both sides – clubs and
agents. Mike [Moye, Josh Hamilton’s agent] doesn’t do that usually and I don’t
think he’s doing that now. He’s been pretty consistently quiet on the topic, he
hasn’t really addressed it. It’s collusion if we talk to other teams, so we don’t
do it, so I just have no idea.

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